Sunday, 18 November 2012

Paul Bassett Davies is a writer, director and actor. Over the years he has written for dozens of British
radio and television shows, working with some of the biggest names in comedy,
as well as writing several BBC radio plays. He also wrote the screenplay for
the feature animation children's film The Magic Roundabout. His new sitcom
'Reception' is broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 2013.

This month his
debut novel, UTTER FOLLY, has been published on kindle. I didn’t need much
persuasion to buy it. If you follow him on Twitter you'll already know he’s
consistently hilarious. It's an honour to have him on my blog.

UTTER FOLLY

“The novel is a wicked comedy about an English country house weekend. When a young man visits a well-to-do friend’s family he learns some harsh lessons about love, loyalty, and the landed gentry, as his friend’s barely-legal sister tries to seduce him, he becomes a suspect in the efforts of a deranged policeman to nail a local retired rock star for drug trafficking, and ends up with all his illusions about the upper classes – including his friends – demolished.”

This is
your first novel and some people might be wondering why such a prolific writer
as yourself took so long! Have you been carrying this idea around with you for
some time?

I came up
with the idea for this book many years ago. I originally wanted to do it as a
serial, and persuade people to subscribe to it, paying to receive the next
chapter, once a month. This would motivate me to write to a deadline, and also
emulate the way that my hero, Dickens, wrote much of his work. It wasn't a bad
idea, but I got involved in other things, and the book went to the back of my
mind to simmer on a low heat, which tells me I wasn't ready to write it. I eventually
began it about three years ago, by which time I think it had cooked for long
enough.

There are
lots of ridiculous scenes in 'Utter Folly'. I particularly loved the doomed Bingo
game which made me laugh out loud. How much research did you do? And honestly,
what is the most you've ever won at Bingo?

I have to be
careful about admitting to how much research I did as there is quite a lot
about drugs in the book, and also some bizarre sex. So I'll just mutter
inaudibly about that. As for the Bingo scene, it's based on something that
happened to me in my youth. A lot of the things in the book are based on my own
experience, and on people I've known. However, nobody is going to recognise
themselves, as the characters are drawn from several different actual people,
plus a lot that's purely invented. So, put away the writs, libel lawyers. I
think I can honestly say that I've never won anything at Bingo. A couple of
years ago the Bingo industry spent a lot of money on PR in an attempt to
rebrand it's image, and convince people it wasn't just for old ladies. There
was a spate of TV ads showing hip young people having a groovy time at the
Bingo game. I don't think it worked.

James, your
main character, is a city boy who doesn’t have the relaxing country weekend he
expected. What’s your personal preference, city life or country life?

I lived in
the country for a while, in the West of England, where most of the book is
based. However, I was also living in Bristol at the same time, as a result of
trying to have more than one girlfriend. Which didn't really work. But I love
that part of the world, and my favourite type of countryside is in Somerset and
Devon. It really is England's green and pleasant land. Given the right
opportunity I think I'd like to end up back there.

Do you
have a position on fox hunting?

I'd like to
know how the fox feels about it. In general I'm not keen on hunting unless you
eat what you kill. But even then I have doubts when it comes to grouse and
pheasants. They are probably the stupidest creatures in creation. There is no
sport at all in killing them. A baby could do it with a stick. A pheasant is so
dumb that if you went to a quiet country lane and placed an open pan of boiling
water on a small primus stove in the middle of the road, eventually a pheasant
would climb in.

Which
character did you enjoy writing most and why?

Great Aunt
Prudence, probably. She's so old, aristocratic and entitled that she simply
doesn't care what anyone thinks of her. I also liked writing Jarvis, the cop
who becomes increasingly demented, although in some ways you have to be more
careful and controlled than ever if you try to write about people being crazy.
Someone simply raving isn't interesting. What's interesting is that people who
are undergoing what we describe as a psychotic breakdown actually have a very
logical, coherent and complex view of the world; it's just different from the
one that most of us would call sane.

The writing
process has been described endlessly and usually as a form of torture. Writer @Matthaig1 recently tweeted: ‘Writing a
novel is like trying to squeeze an elephant through a doorway. And equally
likely to end in crap’. How was the process for you?

It's hard
work but I love it. I'm very, very lucky. To be able to make a living as a
writer, as I have done for at least some parts of my life, doing what I most
love in the world, is wonderful. I consider myself blessed.

What time
of day do you write best? And with what beverage, if any?

I am very
undisciplined. I try to write in the morning but not until I've had some
coffee. I sometimes do some more in the afternoon and evening. I often do quite
a lot of thinking before I sit at my desk. I do good work in the bath, and
going for walks. Writers always have problem convincing their partners that
they're actually working, when it appears that they're snoozing on the couch.
It's very unfair on the partner, and I feel sorry for anyone who lives with a
writer, including children and pets. When I was a lot younger I used to write
under the influence of various things. It felt good, and I'd be convinced I was
writing pages and pages of pure genius. Then you read it in the morning and
you'd find that nearly all of it was trash. I used to reckon that you'd get
about an hour of reasonable work and the rest was useless. I don't recommend
it. You've got to be in it for the long game, and you need to look after
yourself. Just say no, kids.

Will you be
writing more novels in the future?

Yes. I've
nearly finished the next one. It's called 'Dead Writers in Rehab,' because it
saves having to explain what it's about.

You’re
currently working on a new BBC sitcom for Radio 4. Are you allowed to tell us
anything about it?

I'm not
going to. There's not much to say. It's a simple set up. It's all about the
characters. Character first, then story, then jokes. I don't like disclosing
too much about what I'm writing in case I jinx it. I'm not superstitious - just
slightly stitious. A lot of writers are like that, which is an interesting
dilemma, because one of the ways you're meant to build an online profile, and
engage with readers, is by talking to them about what you're doing. I didn't
talk much about the content of 'Utter Folly' while I was writing it. But I did
something I don't think anyone else had thought of yet: I held an online book
launch party on Twitter and created a hashtag: #VirtualBookLaunch. That was
fun.

Friday, 16 November 2012

Imagine that a character in your book walks into your workplace frothing at the mouth because they know what you’ve done. They've read every word you've written about them and they don't like it.This is the subject of my GUEST BLOG for Wattpad. Read more.

Friday, 2 November 2012

Prepare – Write a big chunk of the book before you post the first
chapter. Otherwise you risk being unable to produce Chapter 2 which could lead to an inferiority
complex and the belief that you're a useless writer with no ideas. The latter may be
true but there’s no need to let the world know.

Get out of bed – Obvious and yet often quite tricky. You must
resist the urge to melt into the warm embrace of your partner, cat, dog, chimp,
water bottle, pillow... Do not be fooled by the voice, inner or otherwise, that
calls out for ‘Five more minutes’. Before you know it 5 minutes have turned into
an hour of strange dreams and your writing slot has come and gone. Remind
yourself that the reward of completing a serialized novel will be much greater
than a few more minutes cuddling someone or something that you may well be cuddling
for the rest of your life anyway.

Fuel – Put the kettle on while your computer is warming up. A hot
tea will replace the cuddles you have sacrificed by getting up early. Tea, in
this case, refers to any hot liquid in a mug, including coffee, perfumed herbal
stuff (although I can’t recommend it) and water with something in it, like a
floating lemon, slice of orange or spoon of honey. Don’t be too imaginative,
you need to save your imagination for your upcoming chapters.

Write - The first hour is
crucial. Do not check your mail, do not tweet, do no comment on banal facebook
statuses, do not comment on interesting facebook statuses, do not ‘like’
anything. Write. Write. Write. Don’t edit, don’t reread. Don't play about with the font. Don't text people to tell them that you finally did it, you finally got up early to write. Just write damn it!

Edit – Edit a chapter a
couple of days before you post it. For the purpose of continuity you might need
to read the whole book from time to time. It
might be that you've forgotten your character is supposed to have a limp, in which
case you’ll need to reinstate it (he’ll forgive you in time).

Trust – Your pre-written chunk of novel provides a buffer when you get
stuck. When this unhappy time comes and you’re staring at a blank screen with
tears in your eyes and demons in your mind, keep calm. ‘Once you make a
decision, the universe conspires to make it happen,’ said the essayist, Ralph
Waldo Emerson (along with a bunch of other people on twitter). You have committed to
this project and you will finish it. Sit on the floor with your cork board of
post-its and trust that an idea will come.